


Don't Panic

by rainbowgoddess



Category: Suits (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-15
Updated: 2011-07-15
Packaged: 2017-10-21 10:41:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,926
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/224288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rainbowgoddess/pseuds/rainbowgoddess
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Louis is playing mind games with Mike, and Mike is afraid that Louis knows his secret. He gets so worried about it that he has a panic attack in Harvey's office. Harvey tries to figure out how to take care of Mike.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Don't Panic

**Author's Note:**

> From the Suits Prompt Meme, prompt of Mike having a panic attack after Louis screws with his mind

“I'm watching you.”

“Excuse me?” Mike looked up from his cubicle to find Louis standing there.

“I'm watching you. Just remember that.” And Louis walked away.

Holy shit. What did Louis know? What was he planning? Why was he watching him? Mike's head started to spin. He reminded himself that no one but Harvey and Donna knew of their arrangement; there was no way Louis could know.

Unless, he supposed, Louis had actually checked with Harvard....

No. He hadn't said anything about that, so surely that wasn't the case.

A few hours later, Louis was back. “Are you done with that deposition yet?”

Mike almost jumped out of his chair. “N-no, not yet,” he stammered nervously. “You said you didn't need it till the end of the day, and Harvey needs this statement of claim done by noon, so....”

“Of course. Harvey's work comes first. Just remember, Harvey can't protect you from everything.” With that cryptic statement, Louis departed.

This did not sound good. What was Louis up to? How much did he know? And if he knew, why hadn't he just come right out and said something? Blackmail? What did he want? What did Mike have to give? Not money. Louis certainly had more of that than Mike did. His legal services? Louis already had those. Mike didn't want to think of anything else.

He finished the claim for Harvey and then set to work on Louis's deposition. He skipped lunch and had a cup of coffee, and then another cup of coffee. He needed the energy boost from the caffeine. Soon he'd lost count of how many cups he drank.

When the deposition was finished, Mike walked it over to Louis, who examined it intently, making Mike worry that he'd made a mistake, even though he knew it was perfect. Finally, Louis finished his examination and smiled. “Very good, Mike. Keep up this level of work, and there should be no problems.”

Mike didn't know what to make of that statement, but he had the feeling it wasn't as straightforward as it sounded.

When he got back to his desk he found an email from Harvey requesting his presence in Harvey's office. As soon as he got there, Harvey handed him a huge pile of papers. “Read these,” he ordered. “Find the loopholes, the errors, the omissions — anything I can use against these guys.”

Suddenly Mike got dizzy. He could feel the walls closing in on him. He felt like he couldn't breathe. He started to hyperventilate.

“Mike? Mike? Mike! What's happening?” Harvey could tell that something was seriously wrong with his associate. He looked for Donna. She knew everything. She would know what to do. But his secretary was nowhere to be seen.

Mike was continuing to gasp for air. He was shaking. Harvey put an arm around Mike's shoulders and guided him to the couch. He recalled someone he'd known in college who'd had a problem like this. It was called a panic attack. His acquaintance had said it felt something like a heart attack. It was caused by severe anxiety. But said acquaintance had never mentioned whether there was anything that could be done to help someone who was panicking.

What could be causing Mike's anxiety, Harvey didn't know. But he had to help his associate somehow. He kept his arm around Mike, patted his back, and tried to talk to him calmly, even though he felt like panicking himself.

Donna arrived at that moment, and, seeing what was happening, came into the office. “What's going on?” she asked.

“Mike's having a panic attack. Can you get him a glass of water?” He didn't know if water would help, but at least it was something practical.

Donna returned a couple of minutes later with the water. “I tried to find a paper bag for him to breathe into, but everyone uses cloth bags these days. Good for the environment, but not so much for hyperventilating.”

Unfortunately, Mike couldn't drink the water because he was still hyperventilating. Harvey tried to think of ways to calm him. “Mike, listen to me. Try to calm yourself. Breathe deeply. Listen to me. Whatever is bothering you, I'll take care of it, whatever it is. Please try to calm down. Donna, go to the computer and look up 'how to treat panic attacks,' will you?”

While Donna went to Google, Harvey held Mike's hand and rubbed his back, continuing to talk to him in a gentle, soft voice. Eventually, Mike's breathing slowed to normal and he was able to drink the glass of water. Donna hadn't been able to come up with any quick fixes for the panic attack.

When he came out of his attack, Mike saw Harvey and Donna looking at him intently. And Harvey was holding his hand. Holding his hand? Holy crap, what the heck had just happened?

“Why are you guys looking at me like that?” Mike asked nervously.

“You just had a panic attack,” Harvey told him. “I don't know why, but it looked pretty serious.”

Oh, shit. Mike hadn't had one of those in years. He used to have them when he was younger; a doctor his grandmother had taken him to had attributed them to unresolved issues over the death of his parents. His grandmother had said it was more likely that Mike just didn't know how to deal with stress.

Looking at Harvey and Donna now, Mike tried to figure out how to explain this to them. He almost started to hyperventilate again. Harvey slipped an arm around his shoulders.

“Calm down, Mike. Calm down. Just slow down your breathing and try to relax. I'm not going to yell at you just because you had a panic attack.” Harvey knew that something was wrong, and he was afraid that he was the cause of it. He knew he was hard on his associate sometimes; had he caused Mike's anxiety?

Mike wasn't used to Harvey touching him. He didn't see Harvey as a touchy-feely kind of person. But for the past few minutes Harvey had been holding his hand, putting his arm around him. And Mike enjoyed the feeling of Harvey touching him. He wasn't certain if that was going to make his heart start beating more slowly, though at least the fast heart rate wouldn't be due to anxiety anymore.

Making sure that only Harvey and Donna were in earshot, Mike  
said, “I think Louis knows something.”

“Knows something about what?” Harvey asked.

“About our.... Our arrangement.” Just talking about it made Mike's anxiety return. Harvey gave him the glass of water and told him to drink it, all the while continuing to touch him and calm him.

“Tell me what Louis did.” Harvey tried not to make it sound like an order.

Mike explained the strange way Louis had been acting, the way Louis had been watching him, the cryptic things he'd said.

After hearing Mike's story, Harvey became angry. It was obvious to him that Louis had been playing mind games. It was one of his ways of keeping the junior associates in line. Harvey didn't like it, but he'd never said anything about it because it had never affected him. But now it had hurt Mike, and that was something Harvey wouldn't stand for.

“Louis is full of shit,” Harvey pronounced. “He might suspect that you have a secret, but that's only because he knows that everyone has secrets. He has no way of knowing what it is. So he's fucking with your head in the hope that you'll spill. It's a power trip, and I won't let him get away with it.” With that, Harvey stormed off to Louis's office.

Louis was giving dictation to his secretary when Harvey marched into his office. The secretary took one look at Harvey and fled. Harvey slammed the door behind her.

“Harvey, what are you doing interrupting me when I'm in the middle of something?” Louis demanded with a confidence he didn't feel.

Harvey grabbed Louis by the front of his shirt and yanked him out from behind his desk. “What have you been doing to Mike?”

“I haven't done anything to Mike,” Louis insisted.

Harvey slammed him up against the wall. “Mike told me you've been screwing with his head. I'm quite familiar with your little mind games, Louis, and it's time I put a stop to them. I've told you before not to mess with my associate, so from now on, Mike answers only to me — not to you.”

“You can't do that. I'm in charge of the associates,” Louis protested. In response, Harvey slammed him against the wall again.

“Tough shit,” Harvey replied. “If you don't like it, I'll tell Jessica everything. If I talk to the other associates I'm sure I'll be able to build a good case against you.” Harvey was bluffing. He couldn't tell Jessica anything without revealing that he and Mike really did have a secret. But he hoped that he'd intimidated Louis enough that Louis wouldn't call his bluff.

Louis carefully extricated himself from Harvey's grip. “All right,” he acquiesced. “I get it. Mike reports to you, not to me. Can I still borrow him from time to time?” Seeing the look on Harvey's face, he took back the request.

As he walked out of Louis's office, Harvey saw the secretary looking at him nervously. “Sorry I barged in like that,” he said. “I needed to talk to Louis about something.”

Returning to his own office, Harvey found Donna and Mike having a cup of tea. He sat on the couch next to Mike and, without even thinking, put his arm around the younger man again. “I talked to Louis,” he told Mike. “He won't be bothering you anymore.”

“You did that for me?” Mike asked in astonishment.

“No, I did it for me,” Harvey answered. “You're my associate, and I can't have Louis doing things that prevent you from getting your work done.” Then he looked Mike in the eye.“Now, Mike, if Louis or anyone else ever gives you problems like this again, you come to me. Don't let it build up on you so much that you have another panic attack. All right?”

“All right. And thanks, Harvey, for taking care of me.”

“Don't mention it,” Harvey grumbled, knowing that any image he'd had of being a surly, uncaring stereotype of an attorney had been ruined. He removed his arm from around Mike's shoulders, but then he saw a look of disappointment on Mike's face.

“Donna, can you leave us alone? We have work to do,” Harvey  
requested.

When Donna had left the office, Harvey turned back to Mike. “Are you going to be okay?” he asked.

“I think so. This hasn't happened to me in years. I guess all the pressure that I've been under kind of came to a boiling point. I won't let it happen again. I'll cut back on the coffee, for one thing. Caffeine makes them worse.”

“Good,” Harvey said. “But just in case, I want to give you something to help.”

Mike thought Harvey meant he was going to give him some medication or something, and he was going to refuse, when Harvey leaned forward and kissed him.

“I want you to remember that,” Harvey told him. “If you ever feel like you're going to have another panic attack, you remember how that felt.”

“Will there be more where that came from?” Mike asked hopefully.

“Of course,” Harvey reassured him. “But right now, we have work to do.”

END


End file.
